Observatories are affected by dust particles in the air and those that settle on the mirror surfaces. Here we analyze seven years of weather and dust particle data from the Apache Point Observatory (APO) in Sunspot, New Mexico, to find correlations between dust and other weather factors, and also find correlations between the APO data and the Magdalena Ridge Observatory(MRO) weather data. Exposure of optics to strong dust events should be avoided, so we considered different possible observatory closure criteria based on these data.

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